Part 3 (2/2)

ABRAHAMS COMMISSION. Appointed in 1946, this commission was to investigate the problem of land and tenancy, mainly in the s.h.i.+re Highlands. Sir Sidney Abrahams, the commission's leader, was a 1906 British Olympiad, a distinguished lawyer, a privy counselor, and, in the 1920s, had served as attorney general in the Gold Coast, Uganda, and Zanzibar; in the 1930s, he was chief justice of Uganda and then of Ceylon. Although the matter of land had been the subject of inquiries, such as the Jackson Commission of 1920, the OrmsbyGore Commission of 1924, and the Bell Commission of 1938, it had never really been resolved. In 1943 and 1945, there were land-related riots in Blantyre and Thyolo, respectively, proving that the issue remained explosive. The disturbances led to the appointment of the Abrahams Commission to recommend a permanent solution to the problem.

The commission recommended that the government purchase all cultivable land in the areas concerned and administer it as native trust land. Africans on European-owned estates would be given three choices: move to the native trust land, vacate the estate in lieu of government compensation for loss of home and garden, or remain on the estate on the condition of working for the land owner, until the contract lapsed or the tenant became dissatisfied with the deal; if the latter became the case, the tenant could resort to the second option.

Although these recommendations were not fully implemented until 1952, Africans, by and large, reacted favorably to them. On the other hand, Europeans such as Malcolm Barrow, threatened by the possibility of labor shortages, were unhappy with aspects of the commission's findings.

ADAM, OSMAN. One of the most prominent Indian businessmen in 20th-century Malawi, Osman Adam started his commercial enterprises in Blantyre in 1894, becoming the first Indian to do so in the new British colony. In the early 1920s, Adam became founding president of the Nyasaland Indian Traders a.s.sociation, rose to be a leader in the Nyasaland Indian a.s.sociation, and in 1943, he and C. K. Dharap, another leading Indian businessman, financed the establishment of the first Indian primary school in Blantyre. Dharap Primary School still exists today, the population of students now being predominantly indigenous Malawians.

AFRICAN COOPERATIVE SOCIETY (ACS). Based at s.h.i.+loh (Chikunda), just outside Blantyre, the ACS was formed in 1900 by Joseph Booth as an answer to some of the financial problems the Seventh-Day Baptist Mission was encountering in the s.h.i.+re Highlands, and as a way of ensuring that Africans rendered unemployed because of the failure of Booth's agricultural projects could earn a living. Under this scheme, Booth was able to secure porterage contracts that enabled about 500 workers to carry the African Lakes Corporation's (ALC) goods, mainly between Katunga on the s.h.i.+re and Blantyre. Booth took charge of the finances of the ACS, with the result that when Jacob Bakker headed the mission in the later part of 1901, he found it difficult to understand the management of the project. The ACS was virtually dead by early 1902 as a result of Booth's severance of ties with the Sabbath Evangelizing and Industrial Mission of Plainfield, New Jersey, which sold some of the s.h.i.+re Highland a.s.sets to the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

AFRICAN INITIATED CHURCHES. The term ”African initiated churches” or ”independent churches” refers to those church organizations that broke away from the mainstream denominations such as the Church of Scotland, the Dutch Reformed Church, the Seventh-Day Adventist and the Seventh-Day Baptists. The first independent church, the Providence Industrial Mission (PIM), was founded by John Chilembwe in 1900. Influenced by Joseph Booth, who took him to the United States, and by the American Negro Baptists in Virginia, John Chilembwe adopted some of the functions of the black independent churches in the United States. The preachers, Chilembwe observed, were active politicians whose churches were converted into political organizations sustained by religious enthusiasm. Returning to Malawi, Chilembwe created an impressive industrial mission that sought the betterment of Africans economically as well as intellectually. The PIM was African controlled and gave expression to such African grievances as low wages, long hours, and general mistreatment. After the Chilembwe uprising in 1915, the church was discontinued until 1926 when Daniel Malekebu reinst.i.tuted the mission.

On the eve of World War I, the independent churches consisted of Chilembwe's PIM, Eliot Musokwa Kamwana Chirwa's Watch Tower, Charles Domingo's Seventh-Day Baptists, and Filipo Chinyama's Ntcheu Mission. For those Africans unhappy with the older established European missions, these independent churches provided opportunities for leaders.h.i.+p, respectability, and social advancement; they also were a means through which economic, political, and social grievances could be aired. As an alternative path, these independent churches often drew converts from those who were refused entrance into one of the Presbyterian churches without long probation, or who were unable to afford the school fees that were levied on members. To these less privileged members of the African community, there was an appeal provided by Domingo and Kamwana.

During the era between the two world wars, a new group of independent churches emerged, particularly between 1925 and 1935. In 1925, Jordan Msumba formed the Last Church of G.o.d and his Christ, which permitted polygamy. Three years later, the African National Church was established by several Livingstonia church elders and pastors, including Simon Kamkhati Mkandawire, Levi Mumba, Isaac Mkhondowe, and Paddy Nyasulu. The African National Church retained most of the Presbyterian principles except for polygamy and freedom to drink alcohol. In 1935, three Livingstonia ministers, Yaphet Mknadawire, Yesaya Zerenji Mwase, and Charles Chinula, who had left the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian only a year or two before, joined forces to form the Black Man's Church in Africa (Mpingo wa Afipa wa Africa). Ironically, perhaps, the Livingstonia Mission had taught and encouraged its students to be of an independent mind and conscience. The evolution of independent churches was related to the ineffectiveness of the European missions in dealing with such moral problems as evil, witchcraft, and divisiveness among people. The new church leaders were activists, engaging in the work of local African Welfare a.s.sociations and encouraging the development of African schools. In the field of education, it was Daniel Malekebu's PIM and, to a lesser extent, Chunula's projects that enjoyed the greatest success in the interwar period.

Most often those individuals who sought an independent path were acting out of a sincere love for the Christian church. When dissent occurred over differences in traditions and customs, reconciliation was sought but was not always achieved. Differences were sometimes concerned with which day was the Sabbath, which method should be used for baptism, and how long a period of preparatory training was necessary for admission into a church. Generally, they were fundamentalist in their interpretation of the Bible. Most desired more control over their own lives and beliefs and a lessening of European authority. See also ETHIOPIANISM; RELIGION.

AFRICAN LAKES CORPORATION (ALC). Started in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1878 as a response to Dr. David Livingstone's appeal that ”legitimate” commerce replace the slave trade in Africa, this trading enterprise was originally called the Livingstonia Central Africa Company before changing to the African Lakes Company. In 1894, it changed again to African Lakes Corporation. Its first managers were two Glasgow brothers, Frederick and John Moir, and in 1878, they set up their operating center at Blantyre, just half a mile south of the Church of Scotland mission. Locally popularly known as Mandala because John Moir wore gla.s.ses (mandala), the ALC soon developed general trading establishments in almost all districts in the colony, its only compet.i.tors being Indian traders who by the mid-1920s dominated retail commerce in the rural areas. In the 1890s, the ALC began a rubber plantation at Vizara near Nkata Bay, and in 1924, it went into the car business, Mandala Motors, which became one of the leading dealers.h.i.+ps in the country. In the early 1970s, the company closed all retail shops, with only the car division and insurance business (including representing Lloyds of London) remaining open. In 2002, the company sold Mandala Ltd., which by that time included Malawi Motors and Malital Ltd., to the Compagnie de l'Afrique Occidentale, a French firm, and in 2003, it sold the Vizara Rubber Estate. Thereafter, it concentrated on other concerns in different parts of Africa and in Europe. See also AFRICAN COOPERATIVE SOCIETY.

AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL (AME) CHURCH. This black American separatist church was founded in the 19th century, and it stressed the right of black men and women to control their own lives. The first AME mission was started in Malawi in 1924 by Hanock Phiri who had become a member during his stay in South Africa; a year later, the church's first school began. Dr. Hastings K. Banda was a member of the AME church from 1922 to 1932, and the church partially funded both his pa.s.sage from South Africa to the United States and his education at the Wilberforce Inst.i.tute in Ohio. See also RELIGION.

AFRICAN NATIONAL CHURCH. This church was formed in 1929 in the ChilumbaChitimba area of Malawi by former elders of the Livingstonia Mission, princ.i.p.ally Simon Kamkhati Mkandawire, Paddy Nyasulu, Robert Sambo Mhango, Levi Mumba, and Isaac Mkondowe. Accepting polygamy and, in time, more tolerant of beer drinking, the church's main followers were other former members who had been expelled from the mainstream church on grounds of polygamy or adultery. Its adherents also included people who had never joined a Christian church because of polygamy or beer drinking. The African National Church strongly supported the aspirations of the African Welfare a.s.sociations, which sought to improve the welfare of indigenous peoples in the British colony. Within a few years of its formation, the African National Church had branches in many parts of Malawi, including Zomba and Lilongwe, and through the efforts of Paddy Nyasulu, southern Tanganyika. By the 1960s, it had spread to Zambia, Zimbabwe, and southern Congo; in the 1960s, the church also changed its name to the African International Church, partly to reflect is transnational character, and partly because the Malawi government insisted on a different name because of the fear that its original designation would give the impression that it was the country's official church. See also RELIGION.

AFRICAN PROTECTORATE COUNCIL OF NYASALAND. Consisting of three members from each of the three Provincial Councils, the African Protectorate Council was formed by the governor in 1946 as an a.s.surance to Africans that their views could be discussed at high levels of administration. Considered by some as a way of minimizing the influence of the radical members of the new Nyasaland African Congress, the African Protectorate Council was to oppose both closer union of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and the Federation. In 1949, the governor nominated two members of the Protectorate Council, Ellerton Mposa and Ernest Alexander Muwamba, to serve in the Legislative Council.

AFRICAN REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. See MKANDAWIRE, YAPHET.

AFRICAN UNION (AU). Originally known as the Organization of African Unity (OAU), it transformed itself into the African Union in 2002, and all African states, except Morocco, are members of it. All the programs and decisions are made at the annual meeting of the a.s.sembly of the African Union consisting of the heads of state and government of its 53 members. Its African Union Commission, as its secretariat would be called, would continue to be at the OAU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The representative organ of the AU is the Pan African Parliament, whose 265 members are elected by individual parliaments of member countries.

The aims of the AU include expediting the process toward the integration of Africa, representing and defending interests common to member states, ensuring peace and security on the continent, and advancing democracy, good governance, and human rights in Africa. In 2009, the a.s.sembly changed the secretariat's name to African Union Authority. Chairpersons of the AU serve for a year, and in January 2010, President Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika a.s.sumed the chair of the AU, succeeding Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya, and he presided over his first a.s.sembly in Uganda in July that year.

AFRICAN WELFARE a.s.sOCIATIONS. Also referred to as Native a.s.sociations or Voluntary a.s.sociations, they were early pressure groups representing an African effort to work with the colonial administration. The first was the North Nyasa Native a.s.sociation, formed in 1912 at Karonga by, among others, Simon Muhango and Levi Mumba. It was followed by others, including those in Mzimba (Mombera), Zomba, Chiradzulu (started by Dr. Daniel Malekebu), Mulanje, and Blantyre. As local and regional groups, they kept the colonial government in touch with African public opinion, and they kept their districts well informed politically, explaining new legislation. Members.h.i.+p of the a.s.sociations tended to be elitist, most of them being teachers, church ministers, or civil servants. By 1933, educated Malawians had organized 15 such a.s.sociations.

a.s.sociations sought recognition from the government and wanted it to consider several issues vital to the majority population. They argued for better postal service, bridges, and roads; they sought relief from high store prices; they urged a.s.sistance in ensuring village sanitation; they asked for cooperation in protecting women from unwanted advances from European men; they were concerned over the harmful effects of labor migration; and they persistently requested more and better educational facilities. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the a.s.sociations unsuccessfully attempted to reason with an administration deaf to words of reform. During the Bledisloe Commission hearings, the a.s.sociations spoke frankly against any form of closer union or amalgamation with the Rhodesias.

a.s.sociations tended to shun ma.s.s partic.i.p.ation in their groups and clung to const.i.tutional methods in an effort to effect political change. In 1944, they played a major role in the formation of the first nationalist movement, the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC). Levi Mumba, its first president, had in 1929 initiated the formation of the Zomba-based Committee of Northern Province a.s.sociations. Similarly, James Sangala, a key person in the movement toward the formation of the NAC, had been active in a.s.sociations in Zomba and Blantyre.

AFRICANIZATION. This refers to the phasing out of expatriate civil servants and the replacement by Malawians. Unlike other African leaders, Dr. Hastings K. Banda resisted rapid Africanization, insisting that Africans would be promoted on their merit, not their skin color. Africanization also extended beyond public service into the commercial and industrial sectors, where Asian retailers and European-owned businesses were affected. Among the industries nationalized was the Malawi Railways, previously controlled by Lonrho. See also SKINNER REPORT.

AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING CORPORATION (ADMARC). The origins of ADMARC trace back in the colonial period, when the government established various boards to regulate the marketing of crops produced by Africans. The Native Tobacco Board was established in 1926, and similar organizations were set up for cotton (1951) and for beans as well as groundnuts and maize (1952). In 1956, the three agencies merged to form the Agricultural Production and Marketing Board (AP&MB); the director of agriculture became chairman of the board, and most of its employees were seconded from the Department of Agriculture and doubled in marketing and extension work. The government granted the board a monopoly to market all the crops in which it was involved. By 1960, the AP&MB had established markets in various parts of the colony, had capital installations worth 1.5 million and a turnover of approximately 3,500 million.

When Dr. Hastings K. Banda took over the Ministry of Agriculture in 1961, he changed the organization's name to the Farmers Marketing Board (FMB). The FMB began to expand its activities to include buying freehold farms, which some Europeans were voluntarily selling as they left the country. In the second half of the 1960s, the organization sold some of these farms, most of which were in the southern region, to individual Malawians through an arrangement by which the board a.s.sured such prospective buyers' loans and even farm managers.

In April 1971, the FMB changed its name and status to the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation. A statutory corporation owned by the government and directed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, ADMARC's main functions continued to be the purchasing (and processing where necessary) of crops produced by smallholder farmers; the improvement in agricultural production standards; the establishment of agroindustrial enterprises; and the marketing of the increased volume of exportable crops. The corporation posts a set of purchase prices for each commodity before the planting season, and it is mainly interested in maize, rice, ca.s.sava, cotton, tobacco, and groundnuts, the latter three grown primarily for export. ADMARC maintains well over 50 storage depots for the various crops; its agents at these bases also sell to rural farmers select seed, fertilizer, pesticides, and farm implements.

During the 1970s, ADMARC made huge profits, largely because of the wide differential between its buying and selling prices for the smallholder crops such as fire-cured tobacco, whose farmers were paid less than one-third of the prevailing market price. The enormous profits enabled it to establish a diverse investment portfolio, which in the early 1980s included enterprises in most sections of the economy. In 1971, it became a major shareholder in the new Commercial Bank of Malawi and in the just const.i.tuted National Bank of Malawi, and it invested heavily in many of the companies controlled by Press Corporation Limited. ADMARC was able to keep its substantial profits until 1979 when the central government required that the treasury be paid 40 percent of those profits. In the early 1980s, the World Bank began working with the Malawi government, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the United Nations Development Programme, and other donors to strengthen ADMARC by focusing its activities on marketing, improving its management, and reducing its nonmarketing activities. When in the mid-1980s ADMARC was no longer in a profit-making position and its liquidity problems became very serious, the government had to provide a.s.sistance to purchase smallholder crops.

From the 198788 growing season, the private sector was allowed to compete with ADMARC in the marketing of smallholder crops. Since 1988, ADMARC investments have been reduced to agro-based industries and agricultural activities, and the range of crop marketing has been expanded for the private sector. At the behest of the World Bank, the corporation has sold its estates to entrepreneurs. In 1997, ADMARC extended its business interests to the transportation sector when it purchased Stagecoach (Malawi), the transport company formerly owned by a British firm. Multiple problems, including the poor state of the roads, limited spare parts, and compet.i.tion from the mushrooming minibus business, resulted in Stagecoach being unprofitable, and in 20078, ADMARC sold parts of it to a Malawi syndicate and liquidated the rest of the bus company's a.s.sets.

Under the privatization program, ADMARC was expected to be sold in the 1990s. However, civil society has campaigned against the plan, arguing that such a step would place the poor at a disadvantage as they will be left to the mercy of the entrepreneurs over whom the government has no control. Some politicians have also argued that selling ADMARC would increase food insecurity, that this would go against government plans of poverty alleviation, and therefore that it was the social responsibility of the government to leave the status quo. They urged the government to strengthen the corporation so that it could serve the people effectively.

AGRICULTURE. Without any significant mineral wealth, Malawi has always been an agricultural country and, throughout his political career, Dr. Hastings K. Banda maintained that agriculture had to be the country's first order of business; food production was primary, whereas industry and its accompanying urbanization came much later. Nearly 90 percent of the population are engaged in agricultural activities. Maize is both the main subsistence and cash crop of the smallholder, whereas tobacco, tea, and sugarcane are the cash crops of the estate farmers. Agriculture provides approximately 37 percent of Malawi's gross domestic product. Subsistence production provides the largest and most stable element of crop production. Estate and smallholder cash crop production varies annually according to market demands and weather conditions.

Estate production, however, accounts for about 60 percent of domestic exports. Dating back to colonial days when expatriate farmers were given free-hold or lease-hold t.i.tles to land, estate crops have been important. Most estates (about 400) survived after independence and the government supported the expansion of this sector. After 1964, President Banda was able to reward his most loyal supporters with profitable tobacco and tea estates, which could be purchased by government loans. In a 1965 legislation, he acquired the power to issue leases for estates to his political allies. This economic patronage provided the president with years of unchallenged political support. Village headmen and chiefs were warned by government officials not to confiscate customary land and sell it to the estate sector or to withhold lands from smallholders. The World Bank also insisted on ending land transfers, which continued to favor the estate sector's access to land.

Agricultural production has diversified in recent years. Maize, pulses (beans and peas), rice, and ca.s.sava are staple foodstuffs grown by smallholders for domestic consumption, whereas groundnuts, cotton, fire-cured tobacco, and to an extent coffee, are key cash crops grown by smallholders for both home use and export. Most Malawian farms are small, averaging about 3 acres; only 2 percent of all farms are 12 acres or larger. Sixty-three percent of all farmers cultivate 35 percent of the acreage on farms of 4 acres or less. Large holdings of 6 acres or more represent 19 percent of the farms and 42 percent of the total cultivated acreage.

Regional distribution of crops is complicated and may only be described in oversimplified terms. In general, maize, pulses, and groundnuts are grown throughout the country. Of the leading cash crops, tobacco and groundnuts have their areas of maximum production in the central region; cotton and tea in the south; rice in the north. Since the 1970s, there have been rice projects along the central sh.o.r.es of Lake Malawi, near Salima and Nkhotakota, and tobacco is now grown in the north, especially in Mzimba and Rumpi districts and, to a degree, in Chitipa; cotton and coffee are also being revived in that region. Some coffee is also grown in the south and north.

The government's agricultural development program has been conservative. The largest projects were near Lilongwe, Chikwawa, and Karonga and were financed in part by the World Bank. Other projects concentrated on developing certain crops: cotton, rice, tea, and flue-cured tobacco. These integrated rural projects had mixed results, and their operations extended to only 10 percent of the population. Because of the limited impact and high costs, the rural projects were dropped in 1978 in favor of the National Rural Development Program. This program concentrated on a much larger number of families over two decades by a.s.sisting these farmers with credit and extension information.

Since the late 1980s, the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC) no longer has the monopoly of marketing smallholder produce. Individual entrepreneurs now purchase food and cash crops from smallholder farmers, and this has enabled the producers, especially the tobacco growers, to have more control and to increase their incomes.

Agricultural extension services have been expanded significantly since independence; the ratio of extension officers to farmers has increased. Until 1973, when the Malawi government took over the expenditures, the extension services were financed by the British government. General shortages in skilled extension services staff have continued and, generally, such government aid is rendered only to farmers who have sufficient acreage to implement the suggested changes, including growing hybrid pure maize with proper amounts of fertilizer.

The post-Banda government has also emphasized agriculture as the central economic activity and has continued to encourage an increase in the cultivation of maize, rice, ca.s.sava, sorghum, and millet. However, food security has been greatly threatened by factors such as drought and El Nino. At the beginning of the 199798 season and in late 1998, too much rain caused waterlogging, forcing the government to import maize from countries such as South Africa. Agricultural production has also been adversely affected by the devaluation of the Malawi Kwacha and by the removal of subsidies on fuel and fertilizer, measures that have rendered the latter too expensive for most peasant farmers.

Cash crops, including tobacco, tea, and cotton, have remained key foreign exchange earners, except that they too have been badly affected by the same factors. Tobacco, which in the 1970s and 1980s had surpa.s.sed tea as the main export crop, has further suffered from the progressively low prices it has brought on the auction floors. In 1998, there was a government deficit of 700 million kwacha (about US$16 million), leading to a devaluation of the Malawi kwacha by 68 percent. Farmers in the more remote areas such as Chitipa have been further hampered by the poor roads as, often, the high cost of transporting the crop to the auction floors renders the activity unprofitable.

Another notable aspect of post-Banda agriculture has been promoting the less traditional cash crops in the hope that their earnings will offset the deficit created by the falling prices of tobacco. One such crop is pigeon peas, which in many parts of the country is part of the everyday diet. However, although Malawi is a major producer of this crop, earning as much as US$6 million annually from exporting it mainly to South Africa, India, and the Netherlands, the Malawi government has, until recently, not considered it a significant foreign exchange earner. In 1999, a 150-acre hydroponic farm was opened in the Blantyre area with a view to greatly increasing the availability of fresh vegetables and fruits, thereby reducing their importation from Zimbabwe and South Africa. This US$6 million project is headed by the Africa Vegetable Corporation, operating in Malawi under the name of Africa Commodity Traders.

In addition, reforms are under way to move toward more effective land utilization and an improvement in maize markets through incentives such as better pricing and storage. Moreover, as part of the liberalization program, ADMARC was expected to be privatized, and the Strategic Grain Reserve has already been replaced by an independent National Food Reserve Agency. Smallholder crop authorities are also part of the privatization program and, in the late 1990s, a task force comprising the railways, haulage firms, and private traders was set up to establish a means of reducing the cost of imported fertilizer.

During the second term (19992004) of Bakili Muluzi's United Democratic Front (UDF), agricultural production in Malawi declined because of environmental, political, and economic factors. Soil erosion due to environmental degradation, itself attributable to overuse of land and to deforestation, made some of the arable land less productive than had been the case previously. Also drought, especially that of 20012, and the floods of 2003 led to poor harvests. In the 20012 cultivation season, 1.6 million metric tons of the country's princ.i.p.al staple, maize, were produced, representing a deficit of 600,000 metric tons of the approximate domestic demand. In addition, although Muluzi talked about poverty reduction and fertilizer a.s.sistance through starter packs, he paid little attention to agriculture, certainly in the post-1999 period, during which he was preoccupied with attempts to change the Const.i.tution to enable him to run for a third term. Furthermore, in 2004 the Muluzi administration was accused of externally selling maize from the National Food Reserve Agency and failing to account for the funds realized from the transaction.

When Bingu wa m.u.t.h.arika became president in May 2004, his government identified agriculture as being central to poverty alleviation and launched the Agricultural Inputs Subsidy Programme, which enabled rural farmers access to coupons to buy fertilizer at reduced prices. To ensure that farmers succeeded, the Ministry of Agriculture invested in extension services, the role of which had been diminished during the Muluzi era. The government also established funds to buy some maize from farmers, and the grain formed part of a food security program. The government, through extension workers, promoted irrigation and wetland (dambo) cultivation, thus making it possible to grow food in the dry season, with the aim of reducing famine. This was all part of a larger scheme, the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy. The government accelerated the subsidy program in 2006 after the decline in production of maize and other crops because of drought in 2005. This led to a sharp increase in food harvests, so much so that in December 2007 the Malawi National Food Reserve Agency exported to Zimbabwe 286,589 tons of maize, and this was aside from the 32,363 tons the

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